British Section of the World Federation of Doctors Who Respect Human Life

"Joanna Jepson, the Church of England curate who mounted a legal challenge to the late abortion of a foetus will a cleft lip and palate, has agreed to a police request to postpone her High Court action," Elizabeth Day reported in the Sunday Telegraph (9 May 04). "A judicial review, due to start on May 24, has been delayed indefinitely under pressure from West Mercia Police, who have re-opened a criminal investigation into the case."

The Rev. Joanna's legal challenge to official policy on up-to-birth abortion for any disability, however slight, attracted support from the Archbishop of Canterbury and from the general public, though not from Lord Steel (Sunday Telegraph, 7th December 2003), sponsor of the Abortion Act. Mr. Frank Doran MP, at the time of the 1990 amendments to the 1967 Act, accused two lawyers of "scaremongering" for warning that foetuses with cleft palates would be at risk of late termination. He has now called for the law to be re-examined. The Rev. Joanna was born with a facial abnormality, which was later corrected.

The TV programme "My Foetus" (Channel 4, 20th April) which showed the pictures of abortion previously banned, when pro-lifers wanted to show them, was reviewed in the Sunday Telegraph two days before by women from both sides of the battle.

Josephine Quintavalle, of the Pro-Life Party, said "The film comes across as an advertisement for early abortion at Marie Stopes (where the father of programme's director is the Chief Executive). What is being sold to the nation is the explicit agenda of abortion law reform: that is, it's nothing, what comes out is nothing, it's easy-peasy and you don't even need to have a general anaesthetic.

"The image I found most repulsive was the doctor rinsing the remains of the aborted child through a white plastic sieve - the kind many of us have in our kitchen."

Jasper Gerard, Sunday Times columnist (18th April 2004) writes "For the first time since the Rolling Stones were young and hip (so we are talking, like, pre-history here, kids) the public mood could be turning slowly against abortion... It is technology ... that is helping to change attitudes."

Three-dimensional images of the baby in the womb from the seventh week of pregnancy can be shown by a new ultrasound scanning machine pioneered in Britain by Professor Stuart Campbell (Daily Telegraph 13 Sept. 03). The pictures show foetuses blinking, sucking their fingers, scratching their noses, hiccuping and crying. "From 15 weeks, foetuses are seen making complex finger movements."

Jasper Gerard concluded: "In 2001 there were 186,000 abortions in Britain. We are assured 88% were before 12 weeks. But that means 22,000 were after 12 weeks...

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence has recommended that all mothers should be offered screening for Down's Syndrome, not only those at greatest risk (Times, Oct 03).

A mother who lost two (normal) babies to the tests wrote (Times, 24th Oct 03): "I don't envy the next generation of mothers who are to be offered Down's syndrome routinely. They will be sitting in clinics listening to doctors solemnly outlining the implications, delivering the results... In some cases they will have agonising decisions to make, whether to have a test, whether to have a termination ... Tom would be 13 by now. Sorry, Tom."

"One of British medicine's most senior advisers on medical ethics has provoked outrage by claiming that infanticide is 'justifiable"', Elizabeth Day reported in the Sunday Telegraph, 25 Jan. 04. Professor John Harris, a member of the British Medical Association's ethics committee and of the Human Genetics Commission, a Professor of Bioethics at Manchester University and author of 15 books on the ethics of genetics, said "I don't think infanticide is always unjustifiable," during a debate in January which was part of the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee's consultation on human reproductive technologies. He went on, with some reason, "I don't think it is plausible to think that there is any moral change that occurs during the journey down the birth canal."

Joanna Jepson commented "It is frightening to hear anyone endorsing infanticide, but it is shocking when the person is responsible for teaching others." Professor Harris previously attracted criticism when he praised the sale of organs by living donors, at a BMA conference (SPUC News, 4 Dec. 03).

Chemistry and Industry (3 Nov 03) reported "The discovery of a gene involved in memory and learning disabilities in Down's Syndrome means the condition, which is one of the most common genetic abnormalities, may soon be treatable." William Mobley, director of a new centre for Down Syndrome research at Stanford University, California, said "The bottom line is that we have found one gene that is very important." The gene causes the neuron damage thought to cause mental retardation and its discovery means that such retardation could be reversed.

"This is very exciting news, says researcher Stylianos Antonarakis, a Down's researcher at the University of Geneva, Switzerland." Chemistry and Industry continues, "We have always thought that there are probably only a few genes involved in mental retardation, so it is feasible that a single gene may be responsible. And it seems perfectly possible to downregulate that gene using RNAi or other methods." William Mobley says "With the perfect drug at the perfect dose, we can reduce protein production by the extra copy of the gene." The gene will be described by William Mobley in a peer-reviewed journal.

In a statement on 21st January, Melanie Johnson MP, Minister for Public Health, announced that a review of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act would begin in 2004 and there would be a full public consultation exercise in 2005.

IMAGE report that the Parliamentary Committee on Science and Technology will consider surrogacy, adoption, abortion, cloning, genetic screening, embryo splitting and sex selection. Submissions of evidence not longer than 3,000 words by individuals or groups, containing name, postal address and telephone number should be made by e-mail to scitechcom.parliament.uk by 26 May. Details can be obtained from 020 7219 2793

While the U.N. has postponed consideration of a global ban on "therapeutic" cloning for two years and the European Union is to fund research on living human embryos (Nov. 03), Italy has reacted against it. Disability Tribune, December/January 1993-4, reported that Italy's new law to regulate reproductive technology would focus on the rights of "all subjects involved in the assisted reproduction process, including those of the conceived."

"Embryos will be untouchable: the law bans any testing of embryos for research and experimental purposes (such as cloning), freezing embryos or embryo suppression, and forbids pre-implantation diagnosis for preventing genetically transmitted diseases.

"The new legislation has gained worldwide condemnation by scientists working in this field. However, many members of the disabled peoples' movement think this is a step in the right direction because it ends the discriminatory practice of eliminating disabled embryos during the IVF process and prevents undue pressure on parents to abort a disabled foetus."

"The Catholic Church in Scotland has accused the government of hypocrisy over its reaction to a human cloning announcement," SPUC News reported (19 Jan 2004): "The government claimed to share 'widespread public repugnance' to human cloning after Dr. Panos Zavos told a London press conference that he had implanted a cloned embryo into a woman. However, a spokesman for the Church in Scotland pointed out that cloning is permitted in the U.K. following a change of law in 2000 - allowing the creation of human clones for scientific research up to 14 days old."